The Master Butchers Singing Club - Softcover

Erdrich, Louise

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007136374 ISBN 13: 9780007136377

Publisher: Flamingo, 2003

Synopsis

A powerful novel from one of the most celebrated American writers of her generation, and the winner of the National Book Award for Fiction 2012

In the quiet aftermath of WWI, Fidelis Waldvogel leaves behind his quiet German village, and sets out for America with his new wife Eva – the widow of his best friend, killed in action.

Finally settling in North Dakota, Fidelis works hard to build a business, a home for his family – and a singing club consisting of the best voices in town. But his adventure into the New World truly begins when he encounters Delphine Watzka, a local woman whose origins are a mystery, even to her. Delphine meets Eva and is enchanted. She meets Fidelis and the ground trembles...

Spanning the decades from the Great War to the fifties, 'The Master Butchers Singing Club' is a gift to readers everywhere, unfolding its themes of love and death, lightness and gravity with the eloquent prose, sly humour, and depth of feeling that only a masterful writer can offer.

About this title

Review:

'This novel is the work of a poet. The many voices are distinct, rhythmical and poignant ... ‘The Master Butchers Singing Club’ is the kind of story that goes a long way toward explaining the American Dream, its disasters and its triumphs. Louise Erdrich, with the combined blood of the Cree Indians and a man who fought for Germany, gives us a big novel that echoes the land of her birth' Bonnie Greer, Independent

‘A big novel, teeming with life and vivid characters ... Erdrich writes with exuberant urgency, warmth, generosity and a fluid, sensuous lyricism. Wonderful set pieces, sharp dialogue and rich images collude to allow a narrative that is determinedly earthbound soar and glide like a leaf on the wind' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

‘A substantial, beautifully composed, confident work of art ... Erdrich tells Fidelis’s story and that of his comic, shrewd, erotic lover Delphine with old-fashioned assurance and a light, witty touch. The result is both expansive in its reach and intimate in its intense focus’ Oprah Magazine

‘Erdrich's new novel is a master work ... It's a page-turner for thinking readers, the kind of book that'll make you late for work and keep you up all night' Minneapolis Star-Tribune

'The Master Butchers Singing Club can surely be cast as the most wrenching and wise of Erdrich's nine novels' Miami Herald

Synopsis:

A powerful new novel of from one of America's most important and entertaining writers In 1918, Fidelis walks home from the Great War to a Germany broken and defeated. He finds himself inexplicably drawn to the fiancee of his dead best friend and they marry but, knowing he cannot make his fortune here, Fidelis heads for America. When he leaves, 'The inside pockets of his father's suit held all he needed.' He leaves behind his family of master butchers, but not the skills he has learned from them and in America his sausages gradually become legendary...Moving to small-town America, he is soon joined by his wife and son, opens a deli and life seems to be perfect. But there are always the locals to contend with and when they meet Delphine and Cyprian, two eccentric travelling circus performers, things begin to get interesting. There is the problem of the unresolved dead bodies discovered rotting in the basement of Delphine's father's house, for one. And then there is the rivalry over the local singing groups -- will Fidelis be able to prove his superiority? Spanning two continents, this epic look at post-war immigrants' America is Louise Erdrich at her engrossing best.

Warm, human, funny, deeply sad Erdrich's cast of oddball characters are infinitely loveable. The Master Butchers Singing Club will delight the legions of existing Erdrich fans but is also sure to amaze and entrance those coming to her work for the first time.

About this edition

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0007136374
• ISBN 13: 9780007136377
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400